In interactive editorials, the editor
of Al-Jazeerah answers questions and or responds to comments of readers,
which are more general than readers' responses to specific articles or
issues. It is an effective method of interaction in electronic journalism.

Douglas Rotondi

(4) One criticism of western culture by
Muslims is that it is morally
bankrupt and impious or unholy, apparently ignoring the millions of
Americans, who go to church every week. Are Muslims really morally
superior to non-Muslims? Many Muslim women cover their face because
it's the law or they fear having acid thrown at them. In that
case, does it make them pious? Freedom is required for there to be
morality, until there is freedom in the Muslim world, there can be no morality there.

Hassan El-Najjar

(4) Before,
I respond to your many questions in the fourth segment, I would like to
make two clarifications. First, as I pointed earlier, there is no conflict
between Islam and the West, or between Muslims and Westerners. Muslims
have no problem with Sweden, Germany, Italy, Belgium, or any other Western
European country. The problem is with the US and Israel, and it is not a
cultural problem. Rather, it is a result of the Israeli invasion of the
Middle East for the past 54 years and the US unqualified support for that
invasion. But since the 1991 Gulf War, the US has become directly involved
in the conflict.

Second, there is no Western culture,
Eastern culture, or Arab culture. Rather, there are sub-cultures in each
society that share racial, ethnic, regional, and class characteristics (to
name some). What is known as the West (Western Europe and North America)
is as diverse as other regions of the world. There are Catholics,
Protestants, Jews, Muslims, and people of other faiths and creeds in the
West and the East. But religion is not the only defining factor of
culture, although it is a major one. Language is another. You can think of
the huge linguistic diversity of the West, you don't want me to list down
how many languages are there in the West. Then, you think about customs,
traditions, and the other so many factors that distinguish one culture
from another. In brief, what I am saying is that people in the West are
not mass produced to think and behave in a certain way that enables you to
compare them with people from other regions of the world, including
Muslims who are also as diverse. Finally, without a class analysis, you
cannot understand any society or culture. For example, majority of
Americans are Protestants who speak English. However, they are different
in their education, occupation, income, housing, food consumption,
transportation ... etc. because of the difference in their social class
(upper, upper-middle, lower-middle, working class, working and non-working
poor). As a consequence, there is no standard or agreed upon
"Muslim" view of the West, nor an agreed upon what constitutes a
"Western culture."

With this as a background, I can address
your question concerning what some Muslim groups (fundamentalists in this
case) think of categories of people in the West generally, and the US in
particular (non-religious or secular Americans, in this case). If you
compare the lifestyle of Muslim fundamentalists or even the average
observing Muslims with the lifestyle of categories of non-religious
Westerners, Muslims find themselves much better off. For example, an
observing Muslim does not drink, or have premarital or extramarital sex,
or deals in interests. This means that observing Muslims have less
problems related to alcohol consumption, divorce, unwed pregnancy,
abortion, and indebtedness. Now, reverse the issue and ask about how
Christian, Jewish, or Hindu fundamentalists view Muslims, and you will
reach the same conclusion. They view themselves as much better off.
Muslims are viewed as terrorists, who do not like freedom, to say the
least. Fundamentalists of all religions may think that they have monopoly
on morality but they are minority in each society.

A more accurate way to compare is by
using social class. Upper class wealthy business owners or rulers in most
countries have a lot in common, irrelevant of religion or national origin.
The same can be said about professional and middle class people. The poor
are the same everywhere, marginalized, exploited, and helpless.

Concerning the relationship between
lifestyle and freedom, you are right in stating that there can be no
morality without freedom of choice. The example of women covering their
face or the rest of the body is a valid example. In the entire Islamic
world, there are no laws that prevent women from showing their face or to
wear westernized but decent clothing. The only two exceptions are Saudi
Arabia and Iran. However, you will find that the vast majority of Muslim
women all over the world, including the US and Western Europe dress
decently, covering their arms and most of their legs. The reason is that
there is a very clear Islamic teaching about that.

But no matter how much religious
differences are, they do not lead to war between people. The current
conflict between the US and Israel, on one side, and the Arab and Islamic
world, on the other, is not about religious differences. Arabs have been
under a continuous Israeli assault since 1948, when Israelis dispossessed
and uprooted the Palestinian people. Then, Israel attacked its neighboring
Arab states in 1956, 1967, 1978, 1982, and finally the Palestinian
territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip since April 2002. The only
time Arabs initiated a war against Israel was in 1973, as an attempt to
restore their lands that they lost in 1967. The US has been the protector,
benefactor, and sustainer of Israel. However, the 1991 Gulf War brought
the US directly to the conflict, and now another war on Iraq is impending
that will lead to more hostility. The conflict is not about religion or
morality, it is about oil, territory, and resources.

* Douglas Rotondi is a tax accountant, in Boston, Massachusetts,
USA. He has a bachelors degree in accounting.